Fall Colors (Posterized and Digitally Modified Photo)

Fall Colors (Posterized and Digitally Modified Photo) Originally uploaded by randubnick

Tonight I came across a photograph of autumn leaves that I took in late September of 2006. The colors were amazing! (We really didn't get colors like this in 2007!) Despite the great colors, I had never done anything with the photo, probably because the leaves looked a bit too chewed up. Tonight I decided to see what I could do. I opened the image in Painter IX, did a little repair with digital pastel, posterized the image, and then cropped it to get this composition.

Bowl of Oranges (Posterized Photo)

Bowl of Oranges (Posterized Photo) Originally uploaded by randubnick

Sometimes while I am in the middle of something else, I discover that I have been looking at something, admiring the view. It can be anything: clouds , sun light on the trees, fruit in a bowl. Whatever it is, I have learned to trust my instincts, pay attention, and if possible, take a picture. (Luckily, with a phonecam it usually is possible.) Today I caught myself looking at a bowl full of oranges, so I decided to take a picture with my phonecam. Tonight I posterized the image and cropped it to get this somewhat quirky composition.

Two Swans (Posterized Photo)

Two Swans (Posterized Photo) Originally uploaded by randubnick

Yesterday it was windy but warmer than it has been, and good weather for a walk around the pond. The swans were still there, but this time they were much closer to the path, so I took some pictures with my phonecam. Tonight I cropped this image out of one of the best of the photos, then adjusted the contrast so the shoreline would shore. Then I opened the image in Painter IX and posterized it.

Mill and River (Oil Bar Painting Day 5)

Mill and River (Oil Bar Painting Day 5)

This morning I went to Red Brick to get a little time in at the studio, working on this painting of the Merrimack River in Manchester, New Hampshire. Today I adjusted the size and spacing of the windows, especially in the building on the left side of the canvas. As I worked, I also changed the color of the brick. I also added some reflections to the windows, and repainted the roofline of both buildings. There are still some lines that need to be straightened out, but I had to leave that for next time. To be continued. . . .

Just One Leaf After Another

Just One Leaf After Another (Originally uploaded by randubnick)

This is a pattern created from the photo that I posted yesterday. (I used the digitally modified version of the photo for this.) I opened the photo in Painter IX and "captured" it as a pattern. Then I filled a new image with the pattern, adjusting the size and configuration until I was satisfied with what I had. Then I cropped this new image for symmetry, and here it is.

Just One Leaf (Digitally Modified Photo)

Just One Leaf (Digitally Modified Photo) Originally uploaded by randubnick

This is a digitally modified version of the photo I posted here yesterday. I am going to make a pattern from the photo, but I wanted to clean it up a little first. Although I like the original version best, the little marks and flaws that can add charm to a single image will become distracting in a pattern. So last night, I opened the photo in Painter IX, made a copy, and used digital pastel to soften some of the marks on the leaf, and while I was at it, I de-emphasized one or two nail heads in the boards. Tomorrow, I will post the pattern. . . .

Just One Leaf

Just One Leaf (Originally uploaded by randubnick)

This is a leaf I noticed while I was out raking. I liked the way its colors and patterns looked against the wood grain of the weathered boards. So I set up this composition by clearing away some debris and arranging the leaf with the stem parallel to the edges of the boards, and then took a picture with my phonecam. Tonight I transferred the image to my computer, and did a little rotating and cropping to get the proportions right. I am happy with the image just as it is, which is why I am posting it here. But I also wanted to see how it would look cleaned up a bit, because I thought it would make a nice pattern. So I made a copy of the image and continued to work with it. More tomorrow. . . .

Newbury Street at Night

Newbury Street at Night (Originally uploaded by randubnick)

This is another photo that I took during last week's excursion to Boston. I love the lines of the buildings on Newbury Street, so I took a photo with my phonecam. Despite the bright lights on Newbury Street, the picture was too dark. But tonight I decided to work with it and adjusted the contrast and brightness and then I cropped it just a bit to focus on the long diagonals of the Newbury Street roofline.

November Seen Through the Window (Posterized Photo)

November Seen Through the Window (Posterized Photo) Originally uploaded by randubnick

Today we had sunshine and temperatures in the 60s! Although I did take a short walk and spent a little time raking leaves, I spent most of the day in the kitchen, cooking for Thanksgiving. This was my choice, so I am not complaining. I love to cook for Thanksgiving, not just because I like the food (which I do), but because of all the great memories that seem to arise as I am cooking. (Still, it is a little harder to be in the mood for baking pies and sweet potatoes and turkeys when the weather is warm and sunny!) But everytime I checked the oven or washed dishes, I saw this view through my kitchen window. I liked the colors and patterns of the leaves and the way the scene looked framed by the window panes and softened by the window screen. So I took a few pictures with my phonecam. Tonight, I transferred the image to my computer and cropped the image to get this composition. Then I used Painter IX to posterize the image and cleaned up a few distracting marks with digital pastel.

Sunset and Trees (Posterized Photo)

Sunset and Trees (Posterized Photo) Originally uploaded by randubnick

This image began as a photo that I took earlier in the month, November 2nd to be exact. This was a beautiful sunset, and I tried to photograph it through the trees with my cell phone camera. But the photo didn't capture the bright colors of the sky (the phonecam was pointing towards the sun, after all). so I was disappointed. But I came across the photo again tonight while I was looking for something else, and I decided that I like the photo anyway, especially the reflected pink light on the roof and trees. So I cropped the photo to get the composition I wanted, and then I opened the image in Painter IX and posterized it.

Mill and River (Oil Bar Painting Day 4)

Mill and River (Oil Bar Painting Day 4) Originally uploaded by randubnick

This morning I went to Red Brick to work on this painting (the Merrimac River and the mill buildings in Manchester, New Hampshire). First, I adjusted the perspective of the rear building; I also made it a little darker as well. Then I worked on the trees and river bank, softening the yellow-green a bit, and adding detail. I also sketched in the suggestion of a roof line. By then, it was time to pack up my paints and leave, but I was glad I made it to the studio today and I am happy with the changes I made. To be continued. . . .

Driving to Maine in November (Posterized Photo)

Driving to Maine in November (Posterized Photo) Originally uploaded by randubnick

During a recent drive up to Portland, Maine, I had a chance to see some amazing fall colors. The trees along the highway were beautiful, and even though the weather reports would say it was "past peak," I thought the foliage was great! I tried to get some pictures of the scenery from the car (passenger side) which can be pretty frustrating. But I did get one photo with some potential, and I cropped it to get this image. Then I posterized it in Painter IX. While I was at it, I also used a little digital pastel to get rid of a pesky traffic sign. This is just a scene at the side of the highway, but still, it is a little glimpse of Maine in November.

Painted Leaves (Digitally Modified and Posterized Photo)

Painted Leaves (Digitally Modified and Posterized Photo) Originally uploaded by randubnick

Still time for another look at autumn leaves. This image began as a photo I took a few weeks ago in the gardens at Long Hill. When I saw these leaves with their beautiful colors and patterns, I thought they looked hand-painted. So I took a photo with my phonecam. Of course, later when I looked at the image on my computer screen, I could see that the leaves had been snacked on by insects and torn up by the wind. So I opened the image in Painter IX and started patching little holes in the leaves with digital pastel. But I also noticed some major rips and broken leaves, so I did more work with the digital pastel. So now these leaves really are hand-painted. But I matched the color digitally, so the colors in this image were all in the original photo, and followed the pattern in the leaves. Finally, I posterized the image, adjusting the levels to get the effect that you see here. It is good pay attention to autumn leaves, because they will all be gone very soon.

Mill and River (Oil Bar Painting Day 3)

Mill and River (Oil Bar Painting Day 3) Originally uploaded by randubnick

I finally got back to Red Brick Studios to work on this painting, and it has been over a week! Last time I worked on this, I cut my finger with the exacto knife (cutting chunks of paint off the oil bar), but by now my cut is pretty much healed up. (But I did take an old spoon to the studio, and found that a metal spoon does almost everything I had been using the exacto knife to do. Pretty hard to cut yourself with a spoon, but if there is a way to do that, I am sure I will find it.) I was anxious to get back to this painting; it is the second in a series of paintings of the Merrimac River in New Hampshire. This is for a show I am having in January, and I have six paintings planned. This is only the second painting, so I need to speed things up. Today I added clouds to the sky, and added a bit of light to the water. Then I lowered the line of the foliage (to address the window/tree scale problem), and spent some time straightening out the windows a bit. By then, it was time to go home. To be continued. . . .

Rocky Coast at Cape Elizabeth ME

Rocky Coast at Cape Elizabeth ME Originally uploaded by randubnick

Here is another picture that I took during last week's excursion to Cape Elizabeth, Maine, near Portland. I took a lot of photos with my phonecam, but this is one of the best of them. I wanted to capture the dramatic view and the soft colors of the late afternoon sky reflected in the water.

Moving Picture (On the Zakim Bridge)

Moving Picture (On the Zakim Bridge) Originally uploaded by randubnick

Last night on the way home from Boston, I tried to photograph the Zakim Bridge. (If you have never seen Boston's Zakim Bridge, there's some nice footage of it in the movie "Gone Baby, Gone.") Well, last night, as the car started across the bridge, I discovered that I had to close another program on the cell phone before the camera would work. As a result, by the time car was almost across the bridge, I only had a second left to get a quick photo from the passenger side of the car. Then I remembered that I had left the camera on night mode (slow exposure). As an attempt to get a clear picture of the bridge, this was a failure. However, the photo did capture the strong diagonal patterns made by the lines of the bridge, and I liked the colors and shapes. I thought I could create a piece of accidental or found art from the photo, so I did some cropping, and here it is.

Boyleston and Clarendon in Boston's Back Bay

Boyleston and Clarendon in Boston's Back Bay (Originally uploaded by randubnick)

I took this photo tonight during a little excursion to Boston. Perfect weather, perfect timing, and a great parking space on Boyleston Street! After a nice dinner (tapas) and a little walk on Newbury Street, it was time to head home. I took this photo (from the passenger's seat) at the corner of Boyleston and Clarendon. I think I had my phonecam on night mode, but I am not sure. In any event, the reflections, refracted light, and even the marks of the windshield are true to the experience of driving down Boyleston Street at night.

View of Pond with Swan (Posterized)

View of Pond with Swan (Posterized) Originally uploaded by randubnick

It was warmer today, in the fifties, and a beautiful day for a walk around the pond at the Cummings Center. It is always a good idea to take a walk, even when (especially if) I think I am too busy. I was especially glad I did today because there were two swans on the pond! I have never seen swans there before, and it was a lovely surprise. I took some pictures with my phonecam, but I couldn't get very close. Tonight I looked at the pictures on the computer screen, but it was hard to see the swans, so I cropped and enlarged some of the photos. This view of the swan is about the best I could find among the photos I took today. So I adjusted the contrast and then enlarged the image some more. Then I opened the image in Painter IX and used a little transparent color overlay on the water, trees, and sky. My goal was to make it easier to see the swan, and recapture the way the scene really looked in the bright sunlight. Finally, I posterized the image to convey the sense of walking into a magical scene, which is how I felt when I saw the swans today.

Yellow Leaves (Digitally Modified and Posterized)

Yellow Leaves (Digitally Modified and Posterized) Originally uploaded by randubnick

Over the weekend, lots and lots yellow leaves like these started falling, and came down fast and thick. Maybe it was the cold weather. I came out to the driveway one morning and found my car covered with yellow leaves, and had to clean the car off as just as if it had snowed. This will be a lot of raking, but these leaves are beautiful, so I have been taking a few pictures with my phonecam. These are maple leaves, even though they are almost all yellow this year. Tonight I cropped this image from one of the photos. The leaves were looking a big tattered, so I opened the image in Painter and cleaned up some holes and tears with digital pastel. Then I posterized the image, and here it is.

Rock and Water at Cape Elizabeth ME

Rock and Water at Cape Elizabeth ME (Originally uploaded by randubnick)

Yesterday's trip to Portland to celebrate a friend's birthday included a little excursion to Cape Elizabeth, Maine. It's a beautiful place with huge rock formations that go down a steep slope to the ocean--on the scale of Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway. To say I don't do well with heights is an understatement, but let's just leave it there. However, it helps if I am taking photos, so I got out my phonecam. But I would have taken a lot of photos anyway because the scenery was amazing! This is one of the views I like best, so tonight I adjusted the contrast and saturation just a bit, and then cropped it to get the square format.

Mill and River (Oil Bar Painting Day 2)

Mill and River (Oil Bar Painting Day 2) Originally uploaded by randubnick

This going to be another painting of the Merrimac River in Manchester, New Hampshire. It is the painting I stayed late at the studio to work on Thurday night. I got a quite a bit accomplished, so I am glad I didn't give up and go home! I worked on the sky, got started on the river, and did more work on the mill buildings. To be continued. . . .

Night View of Mill and River (Oil Bar Painting Day 10)

Night View of Mill and River (Oil Bar Painting Day 10) Originally uploaded by randubnick

Last night was open studio at Red Brick, so I there to paint. The first thing I did was to add more ripples to the water in the foreground, as I had done on the computer version. I brought along a printout of the digital overlay I made yesterday to use as a guide. (The color looks a little different here because I photographed the painting at night under artificial light.) In any case, the painting now looks pretty much the way I want it to look, although I might add more purple. In fact, I was mixing up some nice periwinkle when I cut my hand with my exacto knife trying to cut a bit of purple oil bar. At that point, I just wanted to give up and go home; besides, the heat was on the blink and I was starting to get pretty cold. But I had been there for just a short time and had just mixed up a beautiful color! So instead of leaving, I went down to the office to get bandaids, patched myself up, and kept going. I worked on my new painting for another hour. (I will post it tomorrow.) I left cold, but happy.

Night View of Mill and River with Digital Overlay

Night View of Mill and River with Digital Overlay (Originally uploaded by randubnick)

Yesterday, during a walk around the pond, I was looking at the water as I always do. And then I realized what I need to do with my painting of the Merrimac River at night. I wanted to make the ripples of the water closer together, to create a sense of a flat plane (and quieter water). I couldn't go back to the studio yesterday, so I decided to try my idea out on the computer first, to see if it would work, before I changed the painting. So I opened the photo of my painting in Painter IX and sketched in the changes with digital pastel. What you see here is what the photo looks like with additional waves drawn over it on the computer. I also made a change in the shoreline as well. I decided that I like the changes. The next step: making the changes on the actual painting. To be continued. . .

Mill and River (Oil Bar Painting Day 1)

Mill and River (Oil Bar Painting Day 1) Originally uploaded by randubnick

This is the painting I started yesterday at Red Brick, another view of the Merrimac River in Manchester, New Hampshire, part of a series for a show in January. Yesterday I only had a short time to work on this, but I managed to rough in the basic composition, using oil bars directly on the canvas. I am using one of my photographs (also posted here) as a reference. Meanwhile, today I decided that I am not finished after all with the night view of the mill and river (posted yesterday), and that I need to do more with the water in the foreground. But that's another painting, another story, and another post for tomorrow.

Night View of Mill and River (Oil Bar Painting Day 9)

Night View of Mill and River (Oil Bar Painting Day 9) Originally uploaded by randubnick

This morning I went to Red Brick and worked on this painting of the Merrimac River in Manchester, NH. I used my T-square to straighten out some lines, and then added a little more periwinkle blue to the sky and to the reflections of the sky in the water. This is just about finished, although I know that I will see things that I want to fix. But it is high time to get started on the next painting, which is exactly what I did this morning, and I will post it here tomorrow.

Mom in New York Subway Station (Digitally Rescued Photo)

Mom in New York Subway Station (Digitally Rescued Photo) Originally uploaded by randubnick

This image started with a snapshot in my mother's album. She met my father in during World War II. (He was from Brooklyn, but was stationed briefly in Pueblo, where she lived.) They married and had a honeymoon in New York City. This photo was taken during that trip, probably by my father. My mother started her album the day they met, and included pictures of their courtship, wedding, and honeymoon. After my father went overseas, she included pictures he sent her from Europe, and pictures of what she was doing in Colorado. She labeled each photo, in white ink on black paper. Well, if it weren't for her labels, I would have had no idea what this was, because the original snapshop was a small indistinct square of gray, with a diagonal pattern in it. Her label read "Dim of me in NY Subway." Although you couldn't really see her (or anything else) in the snapshot, she put it in the album all the same, so I figured this must have been an important memory. So tonight, I decided to try to rescue the photo. I scanned it into the computer and adjusted the contrast. I could see the letters (OGA AVE), so I guessed this must near Saratoga Avenue in Brooklyn, where my dad grew up. I could also see two figures and more of the subway station. I liked the long diagonals and the patterns of the windows. I opened the image in Painter and tried equalizing it , and suddenly got more contrast, and more clarity, as well as some interesting colors and effects. Then I used digital chalk to clean up a fold in the photo, and cropped the image to get this composition. So there's my mother, in the foreground. I don't know who the second person is, probably a stranger waiting for the subway. Both figures are indistinct, almost transparent, but I like the effect. Although I can't see my mother clearly, I know she is there, just the same. Her birthday was in early November, so rescuing this snapshot is a kind of (very, very belated) birthday gift, and a way of spending a little time with her, even though she has been gone now for over twenty years.

Under the Japanese Maple

Under the Japanese Maple (Originally uploaded by randubnick)

I took this photo today during an afternoon walk at Long Hill. There were such strong winds last night that I didn't expect to see many leaves still on the trees, but I was pleasantly surprised. It has been cold at night, so finally there are some bright red leaves. The leaves of a Japanese maple have a red cast all year, but in autumn, the red can be very intense. I shot this photo with my phonecam pointed up at the sky. But the bright light made the color very dark in the photo, so I had to play with the contrast controls and saturation to bring the photo back to the color I saw this afternoon. Then I cropped the photo to get the square format.

Night View of Mill and River (Oil Bar Painting Day 8)

Night View of Mill and River (Oil Bar Painting Day 8) Originally uploaded by randubnick

This morning I went to Red Brick to work on this painting for an hour or so. This is a view of the Merrimac River in Manchester, New Hampshire, part of a series I am doing for a show in January. Although I did take reference photos up in Manchester, this particular scene is only partly based on them. The rest is from memory of the scene and imagination. Today I worked on improving the relative scale (window size to foliage). I lowered the shoreline by about a quarter of an inch, brought the foliage higher, and then added some taller trees at the sides of the building. I wanted the tallest trees to be about two and a half stories high. Then I made corresponding adjustments to the reflections of the trees in the river. This painting is almost finished. But next time, I want to recheck the lines (especially in the foreground, in the water). I also want to add just a little more periwinkle blue to sky and water, because it is one of the colors that attracted me to the scene in the first place. To be continued. . . .

Purple and Gold Leaves

Purple and Gold Leaves (Originally uploaded by randubnick)

While I was taking a walk today, I saw these beautiful autumn leaves. I liked the shapes of the leaves and the unusual colors, so I took a picture with my phonecam. Tonight I cropped the image to frame the purple and gold leaves in the November sunshine.

Perfect Autumn Leaves (Digitally Modified Photo)

Perfect Autumn Leaves (Digitally Modified Photo) (Originally uploaded by randubnick)

This image began with a photo I took yesterday. During a walk near a wooded area, I saw these beautiful leaves with wonderful fall colors, couldn't be better. I liked the dappled light playing on the multicolored leaves, so I used my phonecam to take a picture. Tonight I transferred the photo into my computer, and then I could see that although the color of leaves was perfect, the leaves had been chewed up a bit. So I opened the image in Painter IX and used a little cut and paste as well as digital pastel to patch up some holes. Then I cropped the image, framing the leaves against the tree trunk. I considered posterizing the image, but decided to leave well enough alone. These leaves are already perfect!